The Way We Are Now
by skullduggery's best friend
Summary: Sadie and Lars are both conflicted by the feelings they hold for each other and neither knows how to handle the situation. With their friendship on the line and Sadie's quickly depleting positivity, will the two be able to salvage what they had, and be happy with the way they are now?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Wrote this on a whim so don't mind the cringiness. I should mention that this is based on what _I_ think the characters are like.

XXX

Sadie couldn't tell if Lars was ignoring her or if he was just being his usual self. Maybe it was both, maybe it was neither, all in all, something was off. She cleared her throat to break the silence that had long settled over them, and he looked up from his phone expectantly, when she said nothing he frowned slightly and returned to whatever he had been doing before. She slapped herself inwardly. _Why, why, why_ , she scolded herself, she didn't understand why, but whenever it came to Lars she was never able to get the words in her head out right. She liked him, she admitted that to herself a while ago and she wasn't ashamed of it, not at all, what she didn't understand though was why. Why did she like him so much when it was evident that he didn't share her feelings, she thought herself stupid for not understanding such a thing but she'd given up on trying to understand things a while ago.

Sadie looked at the clock, six minutes to closing time, she looked over at Lars and just as she'd expected, he was putting on his coat ready to leave before she did, meaning that she'd have to close up alone. She didn't mind though, at least that's what she told herself, she'd settled into this daily routine and didn't see it changing anytime soon. Lars muttered a half-hearted goodbye to Sadie before heading towards the door, and Sadie was steadying herself for the wave of disappointment that was going to flush over her the moment he left when suddenly he stopped and without looking back he asked: "Are you coming over tonight?"

Sadie was slightly taken aback by his question, and Lars realising what she thought he meant turned around with a sigh. "Not _that_ Sadie, the party, are you coming?"

Sadie blushed slightly, embarrassed. "O-oh that, I-I'm not sure yet."

Lars nodded at her and bit his lip as if not completely satisfied by her answer, "Cool." He gave one last nod before turning around and walking out of the store. Sadie breathed a sigh of relief, good thing "wasn't sure" for her always meant no.

XXX

Lars stood in the kitchen, solo cup in hand, bored out of his mind. He thought that coming to a party might be able to help him shake the feeling that had been settling over him the past few days, apparently, he was wrong, or maybe it was because he wasn't drunk enough yet, yes that was it, he wasn't properly intoxicated. He walked over to the kitchen island and frowned when a trio of already drunk girls stumbled across the room over to the island giggling, and quite unbelievably took the last two beer bottles. He sighed and slumped against the counter, great just great, now he was to remain sober at an under-aged drinking party, _fan_ - _fucking-tastic._ Technically, he could still get drunk, but the owner of the party had pretty shit taste in alcohol and he didn't feel like downing any of it just to make himself feel better. His mind suddenly slipped to Sadie, he wondered what she was doing, _probably watching a re-run of some cartoon or something_ , he chuckled softly at the thought, she prided herself in binge-watching cartoon re-runs and he understood why. He'd fallen victim to the addiction when he'd gone over to her house about a year ago.

 _"Why the hell do you even watch this stuff? It's crap."_

 _"Shut up and just watch Lars." She hissed at him elbowing him in the side, he groaned in mockery._

 _"Noooo, I don't wanna."_

 _"Well you're gonna have to, so shut up already."_

 _He pouted at her and she giggled before throwing popcorn in his face._

 _"You're evil." He sighed, she laughed and picked some popcorn off his shirt._

 _"I know."_

 _Three hours later, Sadie was sleeping peacefully on one side of the couch meanwhile Lars' eyes were glued to the screen, he had to admit, maybe the shows weren't so bad..._

Lars was snapped out of his trance by Sour Cream clearing his throat beside him. "Hey," said Sour Cream. "What's got you so down?"

"Nothing," Lars replied bluntly, "how's it going?"

"Awesome, you?" Sour Cream swayed slightly to the music playing.

"Good, good." Lars didn't feel much like talking and besides, he knew Sour Cream was going to go off into one of his raves anytime soon, he was drunk, drunk Sour Cream was a ready to rave guy. He never really enjoyed that about him until just this moment when he really wanted to be left alone. He silently waited for him to leave.

"Where's your friend?"

"What friend?" Lars clenched his fist behind the counter.

"You know, little, blond, cute. I thought she'd be here."

He turned to glare at Sour Cream but he was no longer there, just as he'd hoped, though a little too late now, Sour Cream was raving in the middle of a crowd. He thought she'd be there too. He shook his head and sighed, he had other things to worry about, like his fast-growing boredom, he moved from the kitchen to the living room. He surveyed the setting and decided it'd be best to stay there, not too many people and not too little, he didn't know anyone which meant no one could ask him questions about Sadie. He caught a girl on the other side of the room looking over at him, she smiled when he caught her eye. A distraction, great, she began walking over to him, very great indeed.

XXX

Sadie sighed and with a yawn, she switched off the TV. She wasn't in the mood for cartoon re-runs, she was rarely ever in the mood for anything. She sat up and scratched her palm, glancing ever so slightly at the pink scars that ran across her wrists, she pulled the sleeves of her jumper down to cover them, she needn't a reminder of the not so happy part of her life. She picked up her phone wondering if she should text Lars, before abruptly stopping herself from thinking any further, she couldn't text him it'd be awkward like things always were. She missed him to no extent, but ever since _that night,_ she realised that things would never be how they used to be, that things were no longer simple.


	2. Chapter 2

Sadie huffed as her alarm went off. She hit the off button and grumbled as she pulled herself out of bed, she still felt tired and the idea of getting back under her covers was so appealing that she almost lay back down, but then she remembered work or more specifically, Lars. He would expect her to be there, and although she knew that it wasn't really true, she felt that she owed it to him to be there. She sighed and headed off to the bathroom.

"Morning," grumbled Lars as he walked into the store and behind the counter.

"Morning," she replied in her usual cheery tone although she didn't feel nearly as cheery as her voice sounded. She surveyed Lars and raised an eyebrow, he didn't look too good, maybe the party didn't go too well. "Are you okay?" She asked taking a step towards him. He raised a hand to stop her from coming closer and shook his head lightly, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine just a little... disgruntled that's all." He looked up and gave her a goofy smile, "See, I'm fine." He winked at her and she let out a small chuckle.

"Okay then."

The two settled into a comfortable silence and waited for the first customer to arrive.

Lars had, quite regrettably, ended up leaving the party with the girl he'd met. He blamed his idiocy and poor impulse control while in actuality it was neither of those. He'd left with her because she reminded him of Sadie, speaking of which he'd forgotten to ask her why she hadn't come to the party. He turned to look at her, she was subconsciously biting her nails as she usually did when she was bored, he wondered if she knew that about herself.

"Hey Sadie," he spoke. breaking the silence. She looked up and smiled, it was a warm smile something he rarely got from her nowadays.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"Why didn't you come to the party."

Her face flushed and she stammered in her reply, "I-I uh, I didn't feel like uh c-coming."

"Huh," he leaned against the counter, "why?"

"I thought it'd be weird you know, I wouldn't know anyone there." She fumbled with her fingers to avoid looking him in the eye.

"You'd know me."

She sighed, "Lars-"

"Don't, just don't start Sadie. I thought we'd be over that by now, I thought we'd moved on."

She clenched her fist, "What do you mean over it, Lars? You-"

She was cut off by a jolly-looking Steven walking into the shop.

"Oh hey, Steven." She muttered half-heartedly, "How's it going?"

Steven gave her a bright smile, his eyes twinkling. "Great, just doing a doughnut run, I'm going camping with my dad and Connie, can't wait!"

"Cool," she zoned out as she started packing his ordered, only snapping out of it when she heard him say her name again.

"Are you okay, Sadie?" The boy looked at her with wide, curious eyes.

She blushed, embarrassed that she made him worry, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She gave him a small smile and he nodded at her before rushing out the door in excitement.

The rest of the day was uneventful with Lars and Saide barely saying anything to each other.

 _"I don't get it." Sadie chuckled as she pushed Lars' comic book away from her._

 _"What do you mean you don't get it, Sadie it's simple." He pulled the comic book back._

 _"Lars it doesn't make sense, I don't understand how you read those." She shrugged picking up a bag of Doritos from the coffee table and opening it._

 _"Fine." He snatched the Doritos away from her and she huffed giggling. She reached out for the bag but he held it out of her reach and she toppled over onto him. Their lips were barely an inches apart, and lars smirked slightly as they gazed into each other's eyes. "Lars," Sadie whispered lightly._

 _"Sadie," Lars whispered back, their eyes fluttered shut as the two came closer and closer and just as they were about to close the space between them the door of the basement opened and Barb began coming down the stairs, the two tore themselves apart from each other and Lars jumped to his feet chuckling nervously. Another moment ruined._

Sadie nodded at lars to hand her another box, they were stocking up on items in the store. Lars half-heartedly picked up a box with one hand and it crashed onto the floor, Sadie growled and Lars mumbled a 'sorry'.

"What the hell do you mean sorry, Lars?!" Sadie suddenly exploded, Lars stared at her wide-eyed in shock.

"Wha-" Lars began but Sadie cut him off.

"Listen, I know there's been a lot of tension between us after everything that's happened, but seriously stop being such a shit head about it all, I'm sick of having to pick up after you!"

Lars' ears turned red with anger, "Goddammit Sadie, here you go again with the high and mightiness again. Trying to dump the blame on me because you can't see how much of a bitch-"

She slapped him across the face, "Don't you dare ever call me a bitch again." She had tears in her eyes, and Lars could see that she was trying her hardest to keep them from falling. He nodded at her, his face red and sighed. She nodded and walked back to the break room, she needed to sit down. She didn't realise that he followed her.

She sat down in a chair, silently hyperventilating and not daring to look up at Lars. When she got herself under control she clenched her fist and finally looked up at Lars who standing about three feet away from her with a worried expression on his face. She inhaled, preparing herself for what she was about to say, "I'm sorry." It came out soft and almost inaudible, almost.

"What?" He asked perplexed by her statement.

"I'm sorry, Ok?"

"What-"

"I didn't mean to explode like that, I didn't mean to hit you, it was wrong, I'm sorry."

He nodded at her, unable to think of a way to reply to this. "I'm sorry, too."

She looked up at him surprised, "Really?"

He sighed and gave out a wry chuckle, "Yeah, I know I've been a bit of a dick lately. I'm still trying to stabilise ya know?"

"Yeah, I do know."

XXXXX


End file.
